Nobody Needs Your Cattle

[cropduster]

rsomer,you talk of the Canadian advantage ........you might also tell our American chatmate of the feed price advantage feeders get from the CWB.Some of the R-Calfers know and are aware. That`s why some of them feed cattle here.Funny how the feeders `forget` that the feed grain they buy comes from a captive seller.How many came to Lethbridge to see these sellers go to jail for freedom???Lots I suspect were `just too busy`.Now the boot is on the other foot and it`s really toooo tight!!!

[kato]

Feed price advantage from the CWB?

In Manitoba the feed price advantage comes from the freight being more costly than the grain!

[cowman]

I have to agree somewhat with cropduster on this one. The CWB completely screws up the "continental" feed barley price!
However I also believe if the western Canadian farmer had unlimited access to the American feed grain market it wouldn't take long for the Americans to slam that border shut real quick.
But the fundamental right to sell your property to whoever you please, is one all farmers should support?
The same way, you should have a fundamental right to do whatever tests you please on your cows?
When did we ever give up our right to try to get the most money for our products?
The CWB no longer serves any useful purpose, other than to provide cushy jobs and positions for the lackeys of the power elite and distorting the markets so they can steal the farmers grain! A much better system would be an open market with appropriate legislation to protect the farmer from the international pirates? Incidently the same group of pirates that are robbing the cattle industry blind right now?
Now pirates will always be pirates...it is their nature? The real scandal isn't the pirates but the cowardly corrupt governments we have that won't protect the little guys from being ****d and pillaged? Shame on them!

[cropduster]

Thanks, Cowman,but who is government????????Canadians don`t express themselves strongly enough to their representatives.Here people think they are here at the government`s whim not `the government is here at the people`s whim`.......similar to Reagan`s quote.The CFIA has no master ,that I know,and that is disgusting.Ultimately it should be the people.....rightly or wrongly.

[grassfarmer]

Very good argument Cowman I agree with you completely. One question I would ask, when you mention that grain would be better sold on an open market with "appropriate legislation to protect the farmer from the international pirates?" in all the anti-CWB or removing CWB talk has anyone got an agreement from Government that such legislation would be implemented? Without it I fear grain farmers would be thrown to the wolves like beef producers are at the moment.

[rusty1]

RSOMER in regards to the US NEEDING our beef. (tonge in cheek) they don't. They could import all the current millions on tons they buy from us from Uraguay or Austrailia or from other countrys that is willing to become a serf for them.

[rsomer]

Rusty1: Good point. NAFTA gives Canada preferential access to the U.S. market. That same access is not available to non NAFTA countries.

If we sometimes question whether NAFTA is doing beef producers any good we only need to consider how much beef would Uruguay be importing to North America if they had a BSE positive test.

Still the U.S. continuing to dither and delay on allowing access for our young live cattle to their packing plants is not within the spirit of NAFTA if it is even with the law. I have always seen the BSE situation as a crisis for NAFTA not just for beef producers. Depending on how the "non-negative" test in the U.S. shakes out maybe we will finally see some movement.

[rsomer]

The USA doesn't treat Canadian beef special because it is from Canada. They want our beef, (the best beef in the world) because they can add value and sell it to customers with a taste for quality.

We could be looking at this crisis as an opportunity for all grassroots farmers in Canada to stand up for free trade for CANADIAN products.

I am truly sorry rsomer, that your team Canada approach saw no room for grassroots producers to have a voice, mine sees room for oppinions from all Canadains including grain producers and consumers alike.

[kato]

Before I get anybody riled up, my opinion on the CWB is from the perspective of someone who hasn't had a permit book for almost 10 years now, but Grassfarmer, I agree with you completely.

The CWB, as unpopular as it may be in Alberta, is really the only institution of any size that seems to be able to cope with the push by American interests to take over the grain industry as it has taken over the cattle industry.

Price this or price that doesn't mean much when the grain industry finds itself in the same boat we are in.

Remember a little over a year ago when we thought a ten cent drop in the feeder price was a big deal? Looking back with a bit of perspective it doesn't seem like such a big deal any more.

Until the government shows some willingness to actually DO something to protect the Canadian grain farmer, I wouldn't be too quick to throw out the CWB. So far, I don't think the government has shown any kind of willingness to go to bat for agriculture.

Multinationals (aka Cargill etc..) have already killed the prairie pools, and see the CWB as the only thing stopping them from complete control.

The grain industry is sitting right where we were the day before Cargill & Tyson set up shop. I hope they are seeing what happened to us, and learning from it.

Not everybody loves the CWB, but is the alternative REALLY better? How much do we trust our government to look after our interests? So far the track record is not good.

[kato]

Now, before this thread slips into a Wheat Board discussion....

The States doesn't need our beef? If they didn't need to import beef why are they doing it now? Why are they signing free trade agreements with Australia, and working out new ones with South America.

Need and want are two different things.

[rsomer]

Rpkaiser: After May 20 our industry spoke with one voice, whether it was grassroots producers, feedlots, government and even packers. Every sector of the beef industry saw the need to present an unified front to consumers that our beef was safe, that everything that needed to be done was being done and that there was nothing to fear from eating our tasty and nutritious product. A year later we take for granted that the Canadian consumer’s confidence and acceptance of our product actually increased post BSE but we forget that no other country has ever managed to come through a BSE crisis without loosing consumer confidence. Our unified approach worked.

I also have repeatedly pointed out that the U.S. approach to the North American crisis has not been helpful. The U.S. can only talk out of both sides of its mouth for so long by saying their beef supply is safe yet the American people need to be protected from unsafe imports of Canadian cattle. Ultimately American consumers will loose faith in their food system.

Presently we are waiting for the final word on the "non-negative" test in the U.S. These tests present crisis points for our industry in our need to retain consumer confidence. Now is not the time for individual groups, for instance R-Calf and others like them, to try and increase membership by being divisive and publicly raising contentious issues about what we should be doing better.

Bottom line, going beyond Canada’s borders, North America needs to be unified in our struggle to retain consumer confidence in beef. Part of this approach needs to be a quick opening of the U.S. border to Canada, now is not the time for the pot to be calling the kettle black. As well groups such as R-Calf and others must realize that they have responsibilities to the larger industry.

[rsomer]

A unified approach will still work rsomer, once you and a very few other folks like yourself quit taking the new ideas of BIG C personally, and admit that the majority support BSE testing for markets that ask for it.

Just can't stop, can you.